The alarm goes off at 5AM on the dot. I look over at Blandine, she's completely KO. I lower the aircon a bit and jump into my red PSE T-shirt and shorts. A weird Groundhog Day-like feeling creeps up my back.
Today's a bit different from yesterday though: all monitors are on time, and Tanmay hands me an ice cold ice coffee. I happily hold the paper cup against my hot cheeks. I'm not feeling all that hip today, in fact I've got 38C fever, just not enough to stay home.
The pensionnaires are back as well, something I didn't expect. They've decided to give the paillottes another go. A wise choice, considering that Papi (the resident camp manager) had said that the alternative would be to make mats with him all day long.
The van requires another fill-up. As I pull out of the petrol station, I smile and wave to the cashier, an elegantly dressed Khmer woman. Just like yesterday, she doesn't smile back. She must be the only woman in Cambodia who doesn't smile. Too bad for her.
On the way back from P2 I ask Porn to buy us some fresh Mangosteen from a stand on the side of the road. His Khmer is better than mine and he gets a bag full of my favourite fruit for the price of one if asked by a 2m tall white Belgian tourist. I buy a knife as well, it will come in handy when I eat an apple on the porch of the guesthouse this evening.
Srei Sros, a sweet Khmer girl who volunteers in the Central Camp kitchen, has invited us to try some of her cooking, and from what I've heard she's an excellent cook. The timing is off: food is the last thing on my aching mind. While Porn eats his heart out in the kitchen, I get back to the guesthouse to get some Dafalgan.
It must be close to 38C, not a single cloud in the sky. Sweat dribbles down my back, staining both my T-shirt and the upholstery of the driver seat. Porn is chatty, yet I find it hard to concentrate on his broken English this afternoon and concentrate on the bumpy dirt road that leads to P1. We deliver lunch, load empty breakfast casseroles into the back of the van and hop back into the van, in an effort to make good time for the lunch delivery for the kids in P2. Then it happens: on the way out of P1, the gate guard asks me to go as far right as possible, to avoid the drying cement of a newly built gutter by the left side of the gate. I make the difficult, tight turn, yet the rear view mirror hits the right gate door, which swings back to the car and takes out the glass of the right rear light. Van 6550 will need to go back to the engineering department for repair.
The damage is limited: the engineering department will order a new second-hand light and once it's in 6550 will be restored in all her glory in no more than a day. I finish my day with a run to collect all monitors from P2. The monitors would like to stack up on calories at U-LUCK burger, a Cambodian interpretation of a US burger joint, at about half way back to the central camp. The team invites me to come back A tasty burger would normally hit the spot, but I'm not feeling that great just yet, not even the slightest hungry, so I promise myself to come back another time.
I skip dinner and drink a few glasses of tap water instead. On the way to the guesthouse I run into good old Jimbo, who smilingly shows me his catch of the day: grilled crickets he scored from a little stand outside the central camp. Great, another food offer I need to refuse. The olives, fruits, and Spanish ham all need to wait a day as well, in favour of some Dolipran.
Blandine's not in the room, she's watching "The Killing Fields" at the event room. Great, I'll have the bed alone to me for a while. A feverish sleep awaits me.
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